St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-07
dwelling at New Orleans Of an Equestrian
Statue of Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston.
The Ceremonies Witnessed by Large
- Throng OF Interested Spec
tatOrs.
Jefferson Davis Makes an Extended
Speech in Praise of the
Dead.


pie present, probably over 10000. The
veteran association. including Grand
Army posts, attended in a body
On the platform were many noted people,
including Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Davis.
Miss Davis, Gen. Beauregard and staff. Gov.
McEnery and staff. Mrs. Albert Sidney
Johnston, Col. William Johnston and FAM
lily. Col. Throckmorton, U. S. A., and other
officers; Charles Dudley Warner. OF New
York; Gems. Hooker and Walthal,
Gov, Lowrey, of Mississippi, and
many Others. The statue was
presented by Fendell Horne, second vice
president, and was received by Judge IL.
w. Rogers, president. The statue was I'M
yelled by Rosa Robinson aged six years.
great granddaughter of Gen. Johnston, ard
Miss Jennie Rogers, daughter OF Judge
Rogers. The members of the Fifty COM
pany of the Washington artillery fired
salute of IS guns. Poems by Mrs. Mary
Ashby Townsend. of New Orleans. and
Mrs. Kate B. Sherwood. of Toledo, o.,
were read. Gen. Randall Gibson. United
States senator, was the orator OF the day,
and was followed by
MIR. DAVIS
who spoke substantially as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen: If words could add
anything to the effect which this scene pro-
duces, then should regret that my physical
ability does not allow me to address so large
an audience as this. Sidney Johnstons fame
rests upon his deeds. 1t requires no embel-
lshments from any one, aud If it did, the
able orator you have heard has done all that
the occasion could require. To you, my
brethren Of the Louisiana division OF
the Army of the Tennessee, / wish 10 offer
my congratulations for your eminent sue
cess in the task you undertook, despite the
jeerS and evil prophecy of those who SAID
you could not succeed. You have succeeded
(pointiug to the statue), AMI there is to-day,
l believe, the best equestrian statue, man
and horse that is to be found in
the country. Applausel. There is the head
and neck, familiar TO many of you. of the
horse he rode when he received his death
wOund-cOpied. know not how, but instinct
with the resemblance. There is the grand
figure of our hero as we have seen him on
horseback, the perfect cavalier, as well as
the fearless soldier. You have done well to
embody this hero statue in a material more
enduring than granite--not that his fame
was likely to diminish nor that you require
any visible sign to remind you or MS great
ness and warm your affection for him; but
that in the coming time, as the youths OF our
country pass by.they may look at that statue
and saw "well, who is this?" and learn the
story of man who was
AS GOOD AS HE WAS GREAT,
aud as great as humanity permits man to be-
The speaker then dwelt upon the init
macy of his acquaintance with Johnston.
having been associated with him in college
and the military academy where he was
recognized as the grandest character in the
class and proceeded as follows:
We entered the army together and were IN
the same branch OF the service. We were to-
ront-c nd in fha Iy,1i
paign, and remember now the time when
saw him among the men in camp. Sidney
Johnston was there himself suffering, yet
calm and attentive to those who were suffer-
ing more than he. He showed no trepidaton,
it was not in his nature to do
so. The man who had been as a lion in bat
tie, when he stopped over a suffering COM
rade his eye mostened with more than a
mothers weakness. Such was the nature of
this mans heart. Then we served in the
foreign war together. 1 could not tell you
much of that period without being subject to
a charge OF egotiSm, for Singly and alone we
two have stood
WHERE DEATH SEEMED TO COME
every minute, and there Sidney Johnston was
as calm as i ever saw him in camp. His de-
cision was as quick as rife. l speak to
the infantry men, who know how quick that
is. There was one characteristic Of him
which prevailed through the whole
his chivalrio character. He never de-
serted a friend, o nd was prompt to step in
front of a friend when he saw him assaied.
He was knightly, but no Grant When he
saw Texas struggling for right he thought
belonged to all men-the right of self govern
ment, he went TO volunteer without recon-
mendation, taking his place In the ranks. to
fight for the liberty of Texas in order that she
might have government of her own, AS time
wore on, his merits were discovered and he
was raised to rank and position. When the
war with Mexico began we had but a few
troops on the Rio Grande, and in the begin
ming of the war there seemed little probable
ity of success. Johnston organized Il regi-
ment, Of which he was colonel, and marched
Immediately to the support Zachary
Taylor. Afterwards he was on the staff of
Gen. Taylor. will not worry you by going
into details "a voice go ou'0. After the
Mexican war, my friends q will go on a little
longer), he was appointed paymaster under
the administration of Franklin Pierce, q
Yankee who
NEVER FALTERED
in the maintenance of state rights, man
who, in the senate of the United States voted
for every one of the resolutions of Calhoun,
though many Southern senators did so re-
luctantly. Thanks to New Hampshire for
breeding such man as Franklin
Pierce. Pierce appointed Johnston
paymaster and colonel of the Sec
ond cavalry, regiment which gave
more distinguished officers to both armies in
the war between the states than any other in
the United States army. Mr. Buchanan when
president sent to me to ask, "Who do YOU
think ought to have command of the expedi-
tion? / did not chose to select one only
from my acquaintance, and / gave him three
names. He said: do you and Gen. Scott ever
agree about anything?' / said 81 think So
He said "In this instance you have named the
same three men, They were Persifer Smith.
OF Louisiana; Albert Sidney Johnston and R.
e. Lee. johnson was selected, and he was
the best selection. He commanded the expe-
dition. too, and was made Il brigadier general
by breyet, so he had gone to the
highest grade next to the commander-in-
chief within short period after the Mexican
war. Previous to that he had resigned from
the army and lost his position. w hen the
war between the states commenced his rank
and his reputation gave him the right to be-
lieve and expect all that would be given in
the army of the United States. But true 10
his chivalric nature of which I have spoken,
and seeing a Few states
ASSERTING THEIR RIGHTS,
to a form of government resting on the con.
sent of the governed and the attempt of the
majority to deprive them of that right he
sacrificed all he had gained in the United
States army and Travelled across trackiess
desert to offer his services to q minority
struggling for the right. None who knew
Sidney Johnston could imagine him igno-
rant of the fact that this smaller body of men,
without arms, without navy, without work
shops, without the material of war, would
have to contend against terrible odds. On
the field of Shiloh he made one mistake. He
planned that battle and sent me telegram
which was lost, which described it Just as il
was fought-the only battle in the worlds his
tory that was fought as the general expected
The mistake he made was in allowing some
body else to direct the order of march. so
that the army did not get to the field of battle
as soon as they should have arrived there.
That one day lost enabled Buell. to approach